In a battle for who gets the last word, rocker Neil Young has responded to the government's response to his anti-oilsands tour by saying he drives an electric car.

"I drove my electric car from California to the tarsands and on to Washington, D.C., without using any oil at all," Young said. "And I'm a rock star."

His Honour the Treaties tour, to raise money for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation's legal fight against oilsands expansion, kicked off Sunday in Toronto.

In response to the high-profile tour, Jason MacDonald, spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, referred to the natural resource sector as "a fundamental part of our country's economy" and that "even the lifestyle of a rock star relies, to some degree, on the resources developed by thousands of hard-working Canadians every day."

Young said Monday that the issue is more about "the government breaking treaties with the First Nations and plundering the natural resources."

Of his million-dollar 1959 Lincoln Continental electric hybrid, Young did admit the car broke down at one point on his tour.